This week a Pennsylvania couple decided to skip a surgery for their conjoined twins as the newborns were unlikely to survive the separation.

Michelle Van Horne and Kody Stancombe of Indiana, Penn., felt the best thing was to keep their boys together.

“They were born together they can stay together,” Van Horne told ABC News. “It would hurt to lose one and have the other.”

“I’m thankful they were able to survive this long, and they’re still going strong,” Stancombe told CNN.

Born April 10, Andrew Donovan Lee and Garrett Lee Donovan Stancombe are joined at the chest and share both a liver and heart. Some 30 percent of conjoined twins are connected in this way but few share a heart, and this is why a separation surgery is especially risky. The few twins sharing a heart who’ve undergone surgery haven’t survived.

Conjoined twins are extremely rare, with about 200 being born alive each year in the United States and of those half survive until their first birthday. They occur in 1 in 50,000 births to 1 in 200,000 births. About 40 percent are stillborn, and one-third die within 24 hours of birth. The overall survival rate is about 25 percent, making Andrew and Garrett little miracles. The boys are doing well, sleeping, eating and crying like typical babies.

“For me, (the best part) is being able to hold them and hear them cry and know they’re here with me,” Van Horne told CNN. “Definitely, changing their diapers and bathing them is a two person job for me.”